Top 5 Online Reputation Management Trends That are Going to Rule This Year (and probably the next too)

It’s a wonderfully digital world we live in. With customers swearing by online searches to find what to buy, where to eat, what to wear, and even what doctor to go to – online reputation management (ORM) has become imperative for businesses to thrive. Team aReputation lists top 5 ORM trends that are going to rule this year, and probably the next one too. Take a look:

1. Results at hand (quite literally) – Mobile searches

With smartphones in every hand, mobile searches have been eclipsing desktop searches since 2015. For consumer-facing businesses like restaurants and retail stores, this is an online reputation management trend to look out for, suggests Team aReputation. Updating basic information – store or office hours, location, website, phone number, email and social media pages – can be a good start at giving the customers the right impression about your attention to detail or availability.

2. Manage it all – Monitoring and ORM Tools

Searching for your business name and combing through social media mentions is no longer an efficient way to conduct reputation management. A wide range of tools such as Hootsuite, Mailchimp, Vigilint, etc. can help you automate the entire process in a number of ways. You’ll need to invest some time at the start, to manage your online reputation effectively. Later, you can let these processes mostly run themselves.
Alternatively, you can seek help from leading ORM firms, which are well-versed with the workings of the digital world and possess the right set of tools for combating negative feedback (if any). Automating as much of this process as possible, enables you to give more personal attention to clients, and focus on expanding your business.

3. Video Content – Things that play, stay

With over 100 million hours of video content consumed daily on Facebook alone, videos can help increase conversions by as much as 80 per cent, reviews Team aReputation. Playing video content to your tunes gets your brand more attention, more shares, and eventually wins you more customers. If you don’t want to stay limited to managing your reputation this year, and want to put your good reputation to work for you, video content can help you with it.

4. New BFF to your business – The Social Media

Several businesses consider their reputation management done by just monitoring their online reviews. Review sites are important; however, they aren’t the only place that customers are talking about you online. The social media is the purveyor of your brand, if you use it wisely.
Though social networking sites work passively, they still remain one of the most useful ORM tool at your disposal. Efficient tools like Vigilint can monitor the social conversation around your brand, even if you don’t have an account on these platforms. You can consider creating an account and connecting with your customers if you notice a lot of conversation buzzing on a particular platform.

5. Last but not the least – Positive reviews

Monitoring your online reputation is simply not enough today. Active participation is required from a business to maintain and promote its good reputation. However, this doesn’t guarantee that customers will share only good experiences. Irate customers, pretenders and rivals can post anonymous negative reviews to sabotage your online reputation. To keep the system working positively for your business, Team aReputation suggests rewarding customers who share positive experiences, and improving the situation for those who write negative reviews.

Wondering how you can get the word out or improve your business reputation? Give these ORM trends a try. You can also rope in ORM experts like aReputation to take care of your digital wellness.